SB 981 
.05 
1912c 
Copy 1 



020 973 099 6 • 



Metal Edge, Inc. 2007 RAX 



SB 981 
.fl5 
1912c 
Copy 1 



Calendar No. 842. 



Congress, i 
d Session. \ 



SENATE. 



] 



Report 
No. 961. 



IMPORTATION 



AND INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF 
NURSERY STOCK. 



July -;8, 1912.— Ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Chamberlain, from the ^pommittee on Agriculture and For- 
estry, submitted the following 

REPORT. 

[To accompany S. 4468.] 

The Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, having had under con- 
sideration the bill (S. 4468) to regulate the importation of nursery 
stock and other plants and plant products, to enable the Secretary 
of Agriculture to establish and maintain quarantine districts for plant 
diseases and insect pests, to permit and regulate the movement of 
frmts, plants, and vegetables therefrom, and for other purposes, 
report thereon with amendments, with the recommendation that it 
do pass. 

On page 18, in line 5, after the word ''act," strike out the words 
•'or of the rules or regulations herein provided for." 

On page 19, in line 23, after the word ''become," insert the word 
•'immediately" and place a period at the end of the line. 

On page 19 strike out hue 24. 

On page 20, in line 2, strike out the word "July" and insert the 
word "'October." 

EXPLANATION OF THE BILL. 

In general, the Federal powers granted in this act relate to the 
establishment of foreign and domestic quarantine, the issuance of 
permits, foreign certification, and the distribution to the several State 
or Territorial officials of exact information in regard to origin, arrival, 
and destination of importations. 

To the several States are left the responsibihtv of inspection at 
destination of imported stock and the cleaning up and disinfection of 
local quarantined districts. 

Section 1 provides that "nursery stock" may be imported only 
after a permit has been taken out and when accompanied by a cer- 
tificate.sliowing foreign inspection. The issuance of the permit is 
mandatory when the conditions of the section have been met. The 



2 IMPORTATION AND TRANSPORTATION OF NURSERY STOCK. 

section pl•()^ ides, however, tliat for scientific or experimental pur- 
poses plants niay he iniported by the Department of Agriculture with- 
out tlie permit. Provision is also made for the importation without 'i 
certificate of inspection, under proper regulations, from countries { 
where there are no means for such inspection. , 

While the issuance of the permit required in this section is manda- 
tory, it nevertheless affords a large protection, in that it gi\'es oppor- j 
tunity for a warning, if necessar}", to be sent to the importer before 
Jie makes his importation if the goods covered are deemed dangerous, 
and also opportunity to warn the State official long in advance of the 
intended imjioi-tation of stock if the same again are deemed likely to 
carry danger. 

Furthermore, the foreign certification can be made to have dis- 
tinct value, inasmuch as such certification to be acceptable can be] 
required to be made by proper and accredited foreign officers, and of 
such character as to give assurance that the stock covered is clean. 

Finally, the permit and the foreign certification will act of them- 
selves very largely to prevent the im]M)rtation of refuse stock by 
department stores or sucli as is now shi])petl in by foreign dealers to 
be sold at auction, and very much miscellaneous small importations, 
which have an especial danger from the difficulty of following up and 
inspecting such sendings. 

Section 2. Notification section; requires notification from customs 
officers, first receivers of stock, person or firm oftering it for transpor- 
tation, and transporting firm or other carrier, the object being to fully 
advise the Secretary of Agriculture of the arrival and transportation 
of such stock to destination, information now only partially available. 
This information is to be transmitted by the department to the proper 
State officials so that all imported stock can be inspected by the latter. 
The Department of Agriculture acts merely as a clearing house for 
information, and the actual inspection of imported stock is left 
entirely to State officials. 

Section 3. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of entry. 

Section 4. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of interstate 
transportation. 

Section 5. After due notice and public hearing makes provision for 
the inclusion under the foregoing provisions of the act, when neces- 
sary, of the plants and plant products excepted in the definition of 
"nursery stock," as given in section G. The quarantine sections 7 and 
8 and the subsequent sections of the act apply to all plants and plant 
products, including these excepted articles. 

These excepted articles will normally carry little danger of intro- 
ducing new insects or diseases, and therefore, to save both unneces- 
sary Federal supervision, extending to thousands of small seed packets 
and similar importations, and also to avoiel placing unnecessary bur- 
dens on importers of such articles, the requirements of the first four 
sections, relating to the permit, notification, and labeling, are not to 
be placed on these articles except when some real danger develops. 

Section 6 defines "nursery stock'' as used in this act. 

Section 7. After due notice and public hearing provides for quar- 
antining foreign districts to exclude i)lants or plant products which 
juay convey fruit diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore 
widely prevalent or distributed \\^thin and throughout the United 
States. Exchides such articles, whicli aie to be specificallv enumer- 



5n, 



IMPOBTATION AND TRANSPOETATION OF NURSERY STOCK. 3 

ateil, until quarantiiio is withcliawn, even though such articles are 
offered for entry accompanied by a foreign certificate. Provides 
that, in its application to the white-pine blister rust, the potato 
wart, and the Mediterranean fruit fly, the quarantine provisions of 
this section shall become applicable upon the enactment of the bill. 

In the quarantine provisions of this section the particular plant 
conveying the danger is excluded, but no unnecessary restrictions 
are to be placed upon other plants not affected by such quarantine. 
The particular wording adopted in reference to such quarantine, 
namely, ''diseases or insect ])ests new to or not theretofore widely 
prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States," 
will enable the Department of Agriculture to declare a quarantine 
against any foreign pest whatsoever wliich should ])e legitimately 
subject to quarantine — in other words, to any ])est which has not 
already been distributed and established throughout the United 
States — so that there would be no territory unaffected to which 
Federal quarantine could properly apply. 

Section 8. After due notice and public hearing provides for do- 
mestic quarantine for any dangerous plant disease or insect infesta- 
tion new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within 
and throughout the United States. Notice of such quarantine is to 
be given to common carriers and published in newspapers. Plants 
or plant products so quarantined in relation to interstate shipments 
not to be offered for shipment, received for transportation, nor moved. 

The ])articular wording relating to domestic quarantine in this 
section has the same breadth of application as has the similar wording 
in section 7 in relation to foreign quarantine. 

Section 9 provides for the making of rules and regulations for the 
carrying out of the purposes of the act. 

Section 10. Penalties. 

Section 11 defines "person" as used in the act. 

Section 12 provides for the establishment of a definite Federal 
horticultural board in the Department of Asrriculture to carry out 
the provisions of the act. 

Section 13. Appropriation. 

Section 14. Date when the act becomes effective. 

CONDITIONS WHICH CALL FOR THIS LEGISLATION. 

The laiited States is the only great power without protection from 
the importation of insect-infested or diseased plant stock. 

Referring to European powers only, Austria-Hungary, France, 
Germany. Holland, Switzerland, and Turkey prohibit absolutely the 
entry from the United States of all nursety stock, and admit fruit 
only when the most rigid examination shows freedom from infesta- 
tion; and most of the others have very strict quarantine and inspec- 
tion laws, and the same is true of the important British and other 
colonial possessions. 

The United States thus becomes a sort of ''dumping ground" for 
refuse stock. Diseased live stock may be, and are, excluded by law, 
but diseased and insect-infested plants have no bar against intro- 
duction. 

More than half of the important insect pests of fruits and farm 
crops are of foreign origin, and these now occasion a tax of nearly 



4 IMPORTATION AXD TRANSPOETATION OF NURSERY STOCK. 

half a billion dollars annuall}'. A properly enforced quarantine and 
inspection law in the past would have excluded many, if not most, 
of these insect enemies and also many plant diseases. 

While, as just indicated, most of the important seriously injurious 
insects and plant diseases, which are now levying an enormous yearly 
tax on agricultural productions, have been introduced from foreign 
countries, there are still many other insect ])ests and plant diseases 
which may be excluded. There are important orchard and fruit 
pests in Europe and Asia the entry of which can be guarded against. 
There is also just now especial danger from introductions from Asia, 
where conditions are little known and where pests are very apt to 
be new and unusually destructive. 

An illustration of this is seen in the San Jose scale, which was intro- 
duced into this country from north China, and has been carried into 
every State in the Union on nursery stock. This pest has already 
cost the orchardists of this country $50,000,000, and is adding to this 
sum at the rate of $5,000,000 each year. ^ This $5,000,000 annual 
charge comes from the actual cost of spraying operations, which are 
absolutely necessary to keep the trees alive and ])roductive, and from 
the shrinkage in quantity and value of the fruit yield. 

The alfalfa leaf weevil is another of the recently introduced foreign 
insect pests, and its ravages in the great alfalfa regions of Utah are 
now well known, and there are no means of preventing its spreading 
ultimately throughout all the great alfalfa regions of the Pacific 
coast and the Mississippi Valley. 

Still another recently introduced jiest is the European elm-bark 
beetle which has become established in Massachusetts, and is the 
chief agent in the destruction of the historic elms of Cambridge. 
The moribund or dead trunks of these splendid old trees are now 
being chopped down and removed at a cost merely for the removal 
of upward of $30 per tree. This new elm pest may in the end prove 
almost as serious an enemy to the elms in this country as the chestnut 
disease has proved to chestnut forests in the eastern United States, 
and this chestnut disease is also of comj^aratively recent foreign origin. 
Many other illustrations could be given, but these are perhaps suffi- 
cient to illustrate the type of dangers which should at once be guarded 
against. 

As already indicated, much could have been saved to the agricul- 
tural and natural forest resources of this country if legislation similar 
to this had been early enacted. Many of tlie plant diseases and insect 
enemies of the Old World now established in this country could un- 
doubtedly have been excluded, and this would have given this country* 
a tremendous advantage for a long period in augmenting the c|uantity 
produced and lessening the cost of production. The past can not be 
altogether remedied, but the future can be safeguarded, and this act 
will go a long way toward accomplishing this end. 

The enactment of this legislation is esj)ecially urgent at this time 
to exclude several immediate dangers of the gravest character, as well 
as to aft'ord general protection in the future against all important 
plant diseases and insect pests. 

The so-called Mediterranean fruit fly has recently become estab- 
lished in the Hawaiian Islands, and unless quarantined against is 
certain to be brought into this country from those islands or from 
other quarters of the world where it has gained foothold. It is a 



IMPOKTATION AND TEANSPORTATION OF NURSERY STOCK. 5 

more serious fruit pest than any now occurring on this continent. 
Its hirvae, or maggots, infest all sorts of fruits and many vegetables, 
and the presence of these in the fruit can not be determined except 
by cutting the fruit open. Its introduction would be most diastrous 
to the citrous and deciduous fruit ranches of the Pacific coast, and in 
fact to all our fruit-growing interests. 

Another very grave danger at tliis time is the likelihood of the 
introduction of the potato wart with imported potatoes. The short 
crop of last year has already lead to enormous importations of foreign 
potatoes, and these importations have come in many instances from 
districts where this dreaded disease is known to exist. We are, for 
example, now receiving quantities of potatoes from Newfoundland, 
where the potato disease is dO firmly established that her neighbor,, 
Canada, has strictly quarantined against all potatoes from this i4and, 
with the result that we are now getting all the surplus. It is signifi- 
cant also that Canada is now considering the establishment of quar- 
antine against potatoes from the United States because this country 
is allowing the importation of diseased potatoes from Newfoundland. 
The establishment of this potato disease in the great potato-growing 
regions of the United States would result in losses almost beyond 
computation. It is a soil disease, and once in the soil it remains for a 
period of from 8 to 10 years, and puts an effectual check on potato 
production, invading and destroying the potato tubers. 

Another grave danger is the likelihood of the establishment in this 
country of the white-pine blister rust, which has caused enornious 
losses in certain districts in Europe, particularly to seedling pine 
stock. This disease has during the past few years been imported on 
seedling pines into many of our States. Earnest effort has been 
made to destroy all such mfested shipments, and it is hoped that this 
work has been successful. If this disease becomes established in 
this country, it will result in enormous losses to our pine forests. In 
the case of this pine rust, most of the infested seedlings have come 
from a single nursery and district in Germany — a district which is 
more or less locally quarantined against, with the natural result of 
making us the recipients of its diseased products. A law under 
which such districts and such products can be absolutely quarantined 
against is imperatively needed. 

The danger which led to the first attempt to get this legislation is 
still in existence — that is, the likelihood of the establishment through- 
out the United States of the gypsy and brown-tail moths with nursery 
stock imported from Euro])e. During the last few years such infested 
material has been carried to no less than 23 difterent States. In 1909, 
7,000 nests, containing nearly 3,000,000 larva?, were found m ship- 
ments mto New York State — seed material enough to mfest the whole 
United States within a few years; and, as already noted, such infested 
shipments have been sent to many other States, extending from the 
Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky ^lountains. So far as possible, this 
imported stock has been examined and the mfesting larva? removed 
and destroyed by State authorities or, where these were not available, 
by employees of the Bureau of Entomology of the Department of 
Agriculture. It is by no means certam, however, that all infested 
material has been mspected, and the insect may now be established 
at remote ulterior pomts. 



6 IMPORTATIOX AND TEAXSPOETATION OF XURSEEY STOCK. 

'• It is scarcely necessary to comment on the danger to this country 
from the careless introduction and wide distribution of these two 
orchard and forest pests. In a limited district \n New England more 
than a million dollars a year has been spent for a long period in a 
mere effort to control these two insects, and the General Grovernment 
is now appropriating $300,000 annually to endeavor to clear them from 
the border of the main highw^ays and thus check their spread. These 
expenditures do not take into account the actual damage done, but 
they do serve as a measure of the danger to the whole country from the 
recent distribution of these two insects on imported nursery stock. 

In this bill the quarantine provisions are made immediately appli- 
cable to three of these dangers, namely, the Mediterranean fruit fly, 
the potato wart, and the white-pine blister rust. 

With the exception of importing nurserymen there has been prac- 
tically universal demand for this legislation. The horticultural 
societies of many States have demanded.it and have come solidly 
to its support. Resolutions favoring this legislation have been 
passed by numerous bodies of this character, and the horticultural 
and entomological officials of practically every State in the Union 
have long been urging its enactment. 

The opposition to this legislation in the past has been on the part 
of importing nurserymen, and through these, of the National Asso- 
ciation of Nurserymen, the nursery interests fearing that such a law 
would put unnecessary burdens and restrictions on their business. 
The educational work of the last few years has demonstrated to most 
of these nurserymen that their fears have been groundless, and nursery 
associations of whole States have given emphatic support to this 
legislation. 

This bill has been discussed very fully with the committee on 
legislation of the National Association of Nurserymen, and this 
committee, for this National Nurserymen's Association, has accepted 
the bill as satisfactory to them and as desirable legislation. There 
is, therefore, now, so far as we know, no antagonism anywhere to 
this measure, and it has practically unanimous support from all the 
vast fruit-growing, forest, and allied interests in this countr3\ 

o 



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